In support of Tina’s brief siesta from blogging, I have decided to keep you all somewhat entertained by sharing with you some information of our Monday’s FHE activity. (Yes, this is Dave. Tina is on a blog vacation. The previous post called Photosynth/Seadragon was also from me. I assure you, however, that any messages left in post comments saying that you want Tina’s return will certainly go unread and never make it back to Tina’s watchful eyes.)

Bridget is now 2 1/2 years old, officially this week. She is now old enough, we think, to be participating in more outdoor activities. She demonstrated during our Disneyland Vacation that she has matured quite a bit and really has quite a positive attitude. I will be bringing her to my father-in-law’s father-and-son’s outing this coming Friday/Saturday. (No, I don’t need anybody pointing out to me that Bridget is not my son.) To prepare for this campout, we decided to hit the wind caves.

I got off work pretty darn close to 5:00 PM on Monday. Didn’t make it to the trailhead until 7 (since we still struggle getting out the door — sandwiches to be made, backpacks to find, water bottles to fill, etc.). The more astute of Tina’s blogging readership might realize that if it takes a normal hiker an hour to the top and an hour to the bottom then it would take an out of shape husband, a hot wife, and a 2 1/2 year old kid more like 2 hours to get to the top. These astute readers might also point out that the sun goes down in the canyon much sooner than on the Valley floor and that we would be standing in the dark if and when we ever made it to the top.

Well, Bridget did fabulous. She made it a good 2/3 the way on foot, after which we sat down to eat our dinner — homemade hoagie sandwiches, pringles, trail mix, and flavored water. Tina wanted to give up, but after seeing one college singles ward after another pass us on the trail we felt foolish turning back, notwithstanding it getting progressively darker and darker. Yes, we were flashlight-less.

The final 1/3 of the trail was composed of us asking each hiking group that passed us (then on their way down) how much longer we had until we got to the top. Each blessed us with words of encouragement and a funny laugh that made us feel like losers for considering turning back. Again, note that we were flashlight-less.

Well, we made it to the windcaves just as the last singles ward college couple was concluding watching their romantic sunset and the three of us were left alone, in the dark, at the top of the mountain. Again, I remind you, we did not have a flashlight.

In the picture above, Bridget had just learned a valuable lesson (which, unfortunately, I assume she’ll learn over and over throughout her lifetime). The lesson was that sometimes her parents might be right. The base floor at the windcaves is just barely angled enough and just loose enough dirt to allow an unwary 2 1/2 year old a nice slip/trip/fall followed by a butt-ride down the side of the mountain. I saw it coming and so was able to make it to the downhill side of the kid prior to her making it very far.

Depressed that we hadn’t the forethought to bring a flashlight, we finished off our dinner while sitting on the rock in the cave.

Since it wasn’t getting any lighter, we started down the mountain. This time, we could barely make out the footing on the trail: rocks, tree branches, etc. I ended up carrying Bridget on my shoulders the whole way down. Since we couldn’t see (remember, no flashlight), we ended up taking what we thought was a shortcut (what was I thinking?!?) and got ourselves quite significantly lost. It is a good thing that Bridget knows what Lost means (see prior post).

To make a long story short, we ended up scaling down sections of the mountain (in the dark) passing Bridget back and forth. About 2/3 the way down the mountain (once we finally found the trail), we saw several iterations of single, college student wards that were doing the Wind Caves as a night hike (yes, they were bright enough to bring flashlights). When one group felt sympathy for our bumbling through the dark and offered us one of their flashlights, Tina had the great idea to use the LCD display from the GPS that we had brought with us as a light.

We must have been kind of a funny sight: Tina holding down a 3″x5″ LCD GPS to the trail floor, me on her heals carrying a backpack on my back and a dead-tired 2 1/2 year old little girl on my shoulders.

At one point, I felt Bridget’s body start go quite limp. Not wanting her to fall asleep (in the dark on my shoulders) I decided to start up a conversation. I asked her what she was thinking about. Her response? “I’m just thinking about my bed.” Poor kid.

Alas, by 10:00 PM-ish, we finally made it to the bottom of the trail, and infinitely more importantly, to the car. It was kind of funny when we made it to the car, Tina used the remote to unlock the doors, which also happened to turn on the dome light. Bridget saw her carseat through the window and in the most exasperated of voices exclaimed, “My Car Seat!” She was so tired, but such a little angel the whole time. She didn’t complain once.

If nobody complains loudly enough that you want Tina back, I’ll see you all tomorrow when I post about geocaching!